Call It A Comeback
It took me a bit to get all of the features on this, but the Crane Watch Folks have taken a mailer and made annotations about Phil Crane’s Medicare record (put the cursor over different portions and there are little pop up comments that you can click)
After that go see the ad to the right for his opponent Melissa Bean.
Ralph has the best coverage of the Luechtefeld trash story. And he says more to come….
It’ll only make sense to those inbetween Lincoln and Litchfield though as it’ll be called Horseshoe Me!
Scroll down–they don’t have permalinks yet.
Carol Marin writes a very good column on why Russert shouldn’t be subpeonaed.
Doing so would stop sources who are true whistle blowers from coming forward instead of nitwits trying to damage a perceived political opponent. The best solution is a new President–then the leaker will be unemployed–unless Patrick Fitzgerald has more than people are guessing.
Eric Zorn might have fun taking a copy of today’s lead editorial to Bruce Dold:
My, it has been fun to watch them try to scare the wits out of each other in the state capital over something as dry as the state budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Not that I’d be one to make fun of them, I quite often switch legislator with legislature-and I study state politics.
From the Capitol Fax:
THE BUDGET (Excerpt) The governor is screaming about how the Legislature should pass tax hikes that don’t solve the budget problem, and the Speaker is threatening budget cuts that most of his members find abhorrent. Somebody needs to knock their heads together. Soon.
I mean, with all that Blagorgeous hair, would he even notice?
But seriously folks…now The Blagorgeous* is threatening to shut down the government?
Where did this idea come from? Why all of sudden is there a need to shut down the state government?
Here’s an idea. The state has a plane, get your butt on it after preening around the Des Plaines River and meet with the Four Tops. Like today. If you actually bother to meet you might find a compromise.
Here’s a hint–they are in Springfield.
And threatening other Democrats with a shutdown of the government, affects a rather significant force in the Party who will side with them–AFSCME. So unless he thinks he is invulnerable to an intraparty challenge-I’m at a loss as to how he thinks he wins in the end.
Making matters worse-he may have a strained relationship with the father-in-law according to Rich Miller–subscription required for that info though.
Right now the only clear ally that Blagorgeous has is Jones, but Jones isn’t necessarily a reliable ally in the long run. He’s there because it is convenient and he isn’t going to go the distance with Blagorgeous over the unions and everyone else. Running against a Lege is usually a safe bet, but not always. New York in 2001 was looking like a similar situation except that the House Speaker, Sheldon Silver, was a Dem and from a different party. He and Bruno, the Senate President and Republican teamed up to override the Governor on several spending issues. The Governor was saved by 9-11, but ultimately may have faced a real challenge if not for that. I wouldn’t count on the toppling of the Sears Tower to win this budget battle nor a tough primary fight if he actually tries to take on key Democratic constituencies.
The argument the Blagorgeous is probably telling himself is that he can win because he’ll run against the insiders. There are multiple problems with this:
1) he isn’t clean–see the health care fiasco for state workers
2) some of those insiders are rather broad swaths of the electorate like state and local workers
3) he hasn’t set the agenda right
A note on 3. When Clinton pulled it in 1995 he had clear specific proposals including environmental protection to claim to be fighting for. Blagojevich hasn’t offered a similar argument for protecting schools (an analogous issue space for the state) because he refuses to look at substantive reforms beyond demagoguing and Jones just cut his legs out by passing a far different bill than the Governor wanted. He can yell loophole all he wants, but it doesn’t work–trust me–Bob Holden’s been trying it for nearly 2 years and no one is listening in Missouri.
*Shamelessly taken from Austin Mayor in comments
People can listen live at http://uicradio.ws.
8 PM tonight. Call in at 312-413-2191
Carl Nyberg of Collective Interest will be running the show as it is the Collective Interest show.
Word is that some of the discussion will focus on the race for Congress with some mention of local Illinois candidates.
Christine Cegelis makes the second dozen of endorsed candidates by Change for America and Howard Dean. She’s running against Henry Hyde in the 6th CD.
Supreme Court fundraising gets ugly:
A nine-pound stack of photocopies of garbage-picked documents was delivered anonymously to the Post-Dispatch and other media Tuesday, in an effort to prove Republicans are skirting campaign rules to raise money in the race. The documents include hundreds of e-mail printouts, campaign letters, restaurant employee time sheets, old phone bills and discarded envelopes – all apparently fished from trash cans.
Here I’ll take issue with how the problem is presented. First, there appears to be a violation. Isn’t that the first news that should be reported? Now, if it is simply writing thank you notes, it’s a violation and not a huge deal–a slap on the wrist and don’t do it again. But it is a violation and Luechtefeld admits it. Start with the lede.
Now, the gathering bit is important but in the context of this story it is secondary. It would be a great story on how campaigning is especially ugly or in a story on how partisanship is affecting elected judges, but to make it the focus of the story when there is a violation is a strange choice.
The other thing that would add context is a discussion of who might be doing the dumpster diving. It wouldn’t be Maag–unless he was really stupid. It would be someone who has an interest in getting Maag elected.
One of the bizarre parts of the Ryan custody papers is that another campaign brought it to light or went public–usually some nebulous organization or character does it so the campaign can keep above the fray. Explaining that process would be more interesting than quoting Maag other than to point out he denies involvement.
Because it is one of the funniest releases I’ve seen in a while–and Jeff is a friend:
May 23rd, 2004— 3rd District Congressional candidate Jeff Smith (D-St. Louis County) strongly condemns Republican Bill Federer for comparing a single payer system of universal health insurance to Nazi genocide.
At the Marine Villa neighborhood candidate forum, at St. Alexius hospital on St. Louis City?s South Side, Republican Bill Federer answered a question about universal health insurance by saying that the Nazi Germany was a socialist society that operated a single payer healthcare system until government revenue fell, at which point the Nazi?s began to slaughter the retarded and handicapped.
Smith said he had never heard anything quite so absurd as Federer?s comparison of proposals to improve the healthcare and quality of life of 44 million uninsured Americans to the Nazi slaughter of 12 million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally retarded, handicapped, and other so called ?undesirables,?
?I cannot believe that in 2004, I heard a candidate from a major party compare ideas about improving healthcare for the 44 million Americans who have no access to insurance to a methodical system of slaughter. The radical right wing in this country is so brainwashed by their hatred of government that Bill Federer legitimately seems to believe that subsidized healthcare led to the organized murder of millions.?
Smith continued, ?Republicans like Bill Federer have no qualms about using the power of the state to spy on what library books you can read or to get between a woman and her doctor or to subsidize multi-national corporations that send jobs overseas. But the minute someone proposes helping the working poor and improving people?s quality of life, all of a sudden the Nazi?s are racing down Kingshighway. I have never heard priorities that upside down.?
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We should all be able to agree, Federer is a twit.
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